9781644135945

The Light of the World
His special inheritance. “O ye nations, bless the Lord our God, . . . who hath set my soul to live,
and hath not suffered my feet to be moved” (Offertory).
“The Lord made clay from spittle and anointed my eyes; and I went and I washed, and
I saw, and I have believed in God,” the Church sings at the Communion of the Mass today.
These are the fruits of Holy Communion: “I saw and I have believed.” May this fruit be
realized in us also.
Prayer
O God, who dost vouchsafe to the just the reward of their merits, and to sinners pardon through
fasting, have mercy upon Thy suppliant people that the confession of our guilt may have power
to obtain for us forgiveness for our misdeeds.
May the ears of Thy mercy, O Lord, be opened to the prayers of Thy suppliants, and that
thou mayest grant their desires to them that petition Thee, make them ask the things that are
pleasing to Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
It is appropriate that the story of the raising to life of the youth of Naim be told in the stational
church of St. Martin of Tours, for he also was gifted with the power to restore life to the dead.
“Seek ye the Lord, and be strengthened; seek His face evermore” (Introit).
As Jesus was passing by the city of Naim with His disciples, they encountered a funeral procession
at the gates of the city. A young man was being carried out to his last resting place. This
young man had been the hope and the support of his widowed mother, who followed the bier
in tears. Christ was moved with pity, and He approached the bier and commanded the dead
man, “Young man, I say to thee, arise” (Gospel). The dead man sat up, and Jesus gave him back
to his mother. Yes, that is the heart of our loving Savior, full of understanding and sympathy. He
restores to the sorrowing mother the son she had lost. How good He is! He provides us with
joy, help, and happiness. His arrival at the city at the time of the funeral appeared to be mere
chance, but it was not mere chance. He came there with the intention of saving this young man
and of raising him from the dead.
What the Epistle and the Gospel relate of the past, becomes for the liturgy a reality of
the present. For the liturgy the dead child of the Sunamite woman and the young man of
Naim are figures of the souls of men who, through Original Sin or actual sin, are without
the life of grace. Our ill-regulated passions, our sloth concerning the things of God, are
carrying us out from our city to bury us with the eternally dead in hell. Our passions, our
pride, our avarice, our self-love, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all join in the procession
that would lead us to destruction. We are yet young men and should be in the full vigor of
life, but these enemies carry us out as one dead. Weeping and sorrowful, our mother, the
Church, follows this sad procession. She knows the sad state of these souls, for she gave
them life, and they were her hope and support, and she would have led them to eternal life.
But now they are dead in sin. Then Christ appears. He beholds her tears, and these tears
touch His heart. “Weep not.” He approaches the dead soul in the sacrament of penance
and commands the sinful soul, “I say to thee arise.” “I absolve thee from thy sins.” The soul
264